Charter School Demand in New York City Far Exceeds Available Seats

Applications to the city's charter schools have surged to new heights -- more than doubling from 18,672 last year to 39,200. ...

The report comes as most charters begin holding lotteries for 8,500 open seats this week -- including the Super Tuesday of lotteries that will take place tomorrow, when 29 schools draw from their lists of applicants.

The immediate implication of this is that there will be a lot of disappointed families in NYC this week. However, the longer term implication is that the traditional way of enrolling students in public schools, where families are assigned a specific school is done. It may take a few years, but more and more families view choosing their child’s school as the norm rather than the exception.